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Delta Regional Jet, B-52 Bomber Nearly Collide In North Dakota; Off-Duty Border Patrol Agent Shot In Apparent Robbery In NYC Park; Humanitarian Crisis Worsens As Supplies, Food Dwindle In Gaza. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 21, 2025 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[11:00:41]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, a close call investigation. A Delta Regional jet swerves to avoid colliding with a B-52 bomber. The pilot of the jet says nobody told him about the bomber before he turned right and saw it.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin this hour with a truly terrifying moment in the skies. An investigation is now underway after a Delta Regional jet pilot had to make a hard turn to avoid colliding midair with a B-52 bomber. One passenger on that plane describing the alarming moment to CNN earlier this morning. Listen and watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONICA GREEN, PASSENGER ON DELTA REGIONAL FLIGHT: It was such a hard U-turn to where we were going kind of straight and then went pretty sideways. I'd be looking out the window and just see straight grass. I wouldn't be seeing the horizon anymore because we were so sideways.

It was a small plane, so any kind of maneuver on those is really aggressive, kind of bumpy. Turbulence is really aggressive in those. And I do appreciate that he was so transparent about it and let us know. It just -- it made me feel almost safer in a way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That flight took off from Minneapolis and was preparing to land in North Dakota when the midair close call occurred.

BLITZER: CNN's Brian Todd is here with us in The Situation Room and watching all of this unfold. You've been doing some serious reporting on this very dramatic, very close call.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was extraordinary, Wolf, not just for what happened, but for the way the pilot interacted with the passengers right after this incident occurred. We can confirm this just into CNN that the FAA is now investigating this incident, and we also can confirm that the U.S. Air Force now does confirm that a B-52 bomber was conducting a flyover over the North Dakota State Fair at the time this incident occurred on Friday.

We have a statement from the Air Force, quote, we are aware of the recent reporting regarding commercial and Air Force aircraft operating in airspace around Minot International Airport. We are currently looking into the matter. We can confirm that a B-52 aircraft assigned to Minot Air Force Base conducted a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair on Friday evening.

Setting the scene for you, this was this past Friday, July 18th. This was SkyWest. The passenger plane was SkyWest Flight 3788 operating as a Delta Connection flight between Minneapolis and Minot, North Dakota. The incident happened as the passenger jet approached Minot, which is also home to an Air Force base. That Air Force base is about 10 miles away from the commercial airport in Minot, North Dakota.

The -- the pilot had to make, as -- as the audio in this aircraft indicates, the pilot had to make a hard U-turn to avoid colliding with a B-52 bomber. That is according to the pilot's own account. He told passengers that the tower asked him to report six miles from the airport.

After being in communication with the tower, he said pilot -- he said he turned right, and then he saw the military aircraft approaching his plane, and then the air traffic controller told him to turn left. He said he could tell by the speed of the other -- of the other aircraft that it was a military plane.

Afterward, once they landed safely at Minot, we should say they landed safely, the pilot had this to say to his passengers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise. This is not normal at all. I don't know why they didn't give us a heads up because the Air Force base does have radar and nobody said, "hey, there's also a B-52 in the pattern." Long story short, it was not fun, I do apologize for it and thank you for understanding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: The pilot got a round of applause from the passengers in the cabin as soon as he said that. SkyWest has issued a statement saying this, SkyWest Flight 3788 landed safely in Minot after being cleared for approach by the tower, but performed a go-around when another aircraft became visible in their flight path.

Guys, here are a couple of things we don't know. We don't know exactly how close these two aircraft actually got. We do not know if they were actually on a collision course, and we don't know what air traffic control said to the pilot of the commercial jet.

BLITZER: But it raises concerns when commercial aircraft share airspace with military aircraft.

[11:04:58]

TODD: We've seen this in two really tragic, well, one really tragic unfortunate accident in January when that passenger jet collided with a military helicopter. They still have problems de-conflicting military and -- and commercial jets in some places. Clearly, Minot is one of those places.

BLITZER: That was at Reagan National Airport here in Washington.

TODD: That's right. It was Reagan International -- Reagan National Airport here in Washington.

BLITZER: Yes.

TODD: There was a similar de-confliction problem with another flyover over Arlington National Cemetery not long after that incident. And now you have this in Minot, North Dakota. Very, very disturbing.

BLITZER: Yes. We're going to learn some lessons from that.

BROWN: Well, certainly.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, good reporting. Thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Kudos to that pilot for taking quick action and being transparent with the passengers.

All right. I want to turn now to President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. ICE, Immigration and Customs Informant -- Enforcement, is about to see a huge increase in its federal budget as a result of Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill, $75 billion over the next four years. And with all that money comes more pressure to appease the President and defend itself against growing public and political backlash.

Let's go live now to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. I mean this is a lot of money going to ICE.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It's a historic amount of money that is going to go to ICE, which means that they are going to supercharge their immigration enforcement operations. That is what officials have been telling me.

And for a point of context, ICE, with this money, will now be the most well-funded police force in the federal government over the next four years. When you break down that $75 billion, you're looking at $45 billion for detention centers and $30 billion for enforcement and removals. And they're going to act on it quickly.

I spoke with White House Border Czar, Tom Homan, who told me he's having daily calls as to how they're going to execute on these funds. Contracts, for example, for more detention facilities. He wants to get to 100,000 beds by the end of the year. That is more than double how much -- how many beds ICE has right now. Also recruitment, bringing on more officers, training them, building out the ICE Academy to put through more classes of agents. They also last week put out an e-mail to those who have retired to ask them to come back into the workforce and offering them bonuses and other financial incentives for them to return.

So they are pushing forward with this as quickly as they can. But the other reality that the administration is having to contend with internally is that agents are tired and they are frustrated. The White House put a goal of 3,000 daily arrests for them, this quota.

And they have been hovering really around 1,000 or 2,000 arrests a day because it is, frankly, difficult to get to 3,000. And so there has been frustration among officials about the way in which the White House is pressuring them to reach these numbers.

Now, Tom Homan told me that relief is coming because they want to hire more people and therefore they think that these quotas are doable. But there is certainly a lot more immigration enforcement that is expected in the weeks and months to come. All of this as we see that the American public is paying attention. They are seeing how the administration is executing on this deportation campaign.

And what we have found in our polling is that they are increasingly thinking that President Trump is going too far, 45 percent in February, 55 percent now. So there -- those are some telling signs for the administration as they move forward with, again, this historic amount of funding.

BROWN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Excellent reporting as usual.

Meanwhile, there are new developments on the shooting of an off-duty Border Patrol agent in New York City. The Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem providing an update of what was an apparent botched armed robbery over the weekend in a Manhattan park. Here's surveillance released by the Department of Homeland Security.

The officer was wearing plain clothes, was approached by two men on a moped in a park. When he realized he was being robbed, police say he drew his service weapon. The officer exchanged fire with the suspect, who was injured before he and the moped driver took off. The 42-year- old officer is in stable condition and is expected to survive.

Police say there's no evidence that he was targeted because of his employment.

BROWN: The 21-year-old suspect was taken into custody after arriving at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds. Police say he is an undocumented immigrant with an extensive criminal past. Both the secretary and Border Czar Tom Homan addressing the matter today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Miguel Francisco Moro Nunez is and has a rap sheet that is a mile long. There's absolutely zero reason that someone who is scum of the earth like this should be running loose on the streets of New York City.

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: I was an ICE agent. These are the finest men and women in this country. They put their lives on the line every day for this country. I buried Border Patrol agents. I buried ICE agents. Luckily, thank God, we're not burying one today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And I want to bring in CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. So, John, take us through how this investigation will likely play out.

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JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, you've got Moro in custody right now. He's being held, and we have just learned about the arrest of a second individual. We are told by investigators it is a friend of Moro's who is believed to be the accomplice, meaning the individual who was driving that scooter and participating in that robbery.

This is another individual, Moro and the second suspect, both from the Dominican Republic, both entered the United States illegally and have been here undocumented. Moro, in his case, is rather shocking in that he has two domestic violence assault arrests, one striking a pregnant woman with intent to cause injury, failure to appear in court on those which generated a bench warrant for his arrest.

He is wanted for a robbery in December and then a stabbing in January and then the next month suspected in Massachusetts of being one of the gunmen in a robbery of a pawn shop where they stole additional firearms. So what you've got here is two people with extensive criminal records.

His partner allegedly has five arrests for larceny and possession of stolen property and other charges. So what you see here is a collision of two different themes. One is, which was hammered home by the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Border Czar Tom Homan, which is their charge that New York is still a sanctuary city, that the laws of the city of New York do not allow them to cooperate with immigration authorities in many cases and lashed out at the mayor.

The other thing that's going on here, of course, is New York State's bail reform laws, which take some of these cases where the crimes are not bail eligible. The third piece is the court system and the judges and the district attorneys because when you look at the robbery, the assaults, the stabbing, and the fact that he had a warrant from Massachusetts, all of those are bail eligible.

So as Mayor Adams said last night, it's a real sign of not just the immigration issue, but a complete breakdown, in his words, of the New York criminal justice system that this guy was walking around to rob and allegedly shoot a federal agent who was off duty.

BLITZER: John Miller, thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Yes, thank you, John.

And still ahead, right here in The Situation Room, Gaza hunger crisis. A four-year-old, one of the latest children to die from complications of hunger and malnutrition. And now a group of Western nations are condemning Israel for its drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians.

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BLITZER: Plus, a paying tribute to Texas flooding victims. A live look at the memorial just outside the White House. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: Well, today the hunger crisis in Gaza is escalating. One doctor working for a health charity at a Gaza hospital says he has seen firsthand the consequences of the food crisis inside Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TRAVIS MELIN, AL NASSER HOSPITAL, GAZA: There's no way to survive if you don't have even a simple injury sometimes, if you don't have any food to -- to heal yourself. You know, this is not living. We're being treated like animals.

You know, some people are, you know, say things like we would rather be dead than what we're experiencing now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: This four-year-old little girl is one of the latest victims of the food crisis. She died of complications brought on by hunger and maltrition -- malnutrition. And you can see her there. We have a video that was taken just last month. The health ministry says at least 76 children have died of malnutrition since the conflict began in 2023.

So let's go live now to CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv. Jeremy, is there any sense that the aid crisis in Gaza could be eased anytime soon for all of these starving people?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, not at the moment, Pamela. And really we are losing the words now to describe what we are witnessing happening in Gaza, the starvation, the deepening humanitarian crisis that is happening there. And of course, the continuation of violence, including people being shot and killed by Israeli troops as they are trying to make their way to the very few aid distribution points that do exist inside the Gaza Strip.

And this isn't just what we're hearing from Palestinian officials on the ground or eyewitnesses. This is also coming from the United Nations and also now from Western countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, a whole host of countries that have put out a statement making very clear that Israel is the party that is responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying that Israel is, quote, drip feeding aid and inhumanely killing civilians who are trying to reach aid.

They say that the suffering of civilians in Gaza has indeed reached new depths, and they are calling on Israel to immediately allow aid to freely flow into the Gaza Strip and to help coordinate the entry of that aid, because the problem here is not just the aid, insufficient amounts of aid aren't getting into Gaza, the -- the types of aid being allowed in are being restricted by the Israeli government.

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But in addition to that, it's the lack of coordination inside the Strip to get these aid convoys safely to the places where they need to be. And we are seeing once again what we've seen before, which is organizations like the World Central Kitchen, which now say that they have run out of supplies to provide hot meals to people, simply focusing on baking bread and distributing water.

All of this, of course, could be alleviated if a ceasefire agreement is reached, and we know that there are active negotiations to try and reach one. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes, and just to follow up with you, can you help us better understand the why, why Israel is restricting this important aid? And also, do you have some new reporting, I'm told, on these ceasefire talks?

DIAMOND: Well, look, the Israeli government accuses Hamas of stealing the aid that goes into Gaza. They say that's why they need this Gaza Humanitarian Foundation model to get the aid in. But the reality is Israel has neither provided any public evidence to back up its claims of the widespread stealing of aid by Hamas, no U.N. or humanitarian organizations inside of Gaza back that up, and the GHF, which is now running aid inside of Gaza, doesn't do any checks on individuals coming in to get the aid there, so it really does leave us with a quixotic picture.

And -- and the reality is that Israel is using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip in these negotiations. If, indeed, a ceasefire goes through, Israel would then allow larger amounts of aid to flow in and via the traditional humanitarian aid channels.

But I am told now, Pamela, that while Israel has now agreed to some of the remaining sticking points in these negotiations, including lifting its objections to withdrawing troops from a key southern corridor in Gaza last week, all eyes are now focused on Hamas, and specifically on Hamas' leaders in Gaza.

I'm told that while in the past it was Israel that was dragging its feet, that was preventing an agreement from taking place, now the focus is indeed on Hamas and whether or not they will agree to this latest ceasefire proposal. Two sources involved in the negotiations tell me that it's been nearly a week now since this latest proposal has been presented. Hamas' leader in Qatar, Khalil al-Hayya, has indicated privately, I'm told, by two sources familiar with the matter, that he would support this latest proposal, but he is also waiting for the response of those leaders in Gaza, those Hamas leaders in Gaza who would need to actually implement this agreement. And so we will see what they say. I'm told the United States increasingly pressuring Hamas to respond in the coming days.

BROWN: All right, Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, let's continue the conversation right now with CNN global affairs analyst, Brett McGurk. He's the former Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the National Security Council. Brett, thanks very much for coming in. You just heard Jeremy's report. What's your reaction? What's going to be necessarily -- what -- what is necessary to be done in order to bring the hostages back to Israel and that part of the issue and at the same time allow all the humanitarian aid that's needed to keep these people alive in Gaza and let that flow in freely?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, Wolf, it's -- it's so distressing. It's -- it's the worst issue I've ever worked on. You have the horrible situation in Gaza, as you just covered. You have the hostages in tunnels now going on 700 days, and you have a negotiation process that could end all of this. It could end all of this, and I -- I helped lead those negotiations, got the last --

BLITZER: If there were a ceasefire agreement, the hostages presumably would be returned, including the bodies of those who were killed --

MCGURK: Yes.

BLITZER: -- and food aid would flow into Gaza.

MCGURK: Yes, during the January deal, we had set this up, 600 trucks packed with food every single day. In a ceasefire, the humanitarian community, the aid workers can work, and so you have that aid flowing in massively. But, you know, Jeremy's reporting is right. It's my understanding as well. There's a division of labor in this negotiation, Wolf.

It's up to the U.S. We got to push Israel. Get to your bottom lines. Let's get this deal. My understanding is that's now happened, and we're waiting on an answer from Hamas for going on a week. So as this horrible situation is going on in Gaza, we're still waiting for Hamas just to say yes. If Hamas says yes, they have to release half the living hostages, 10, a number of the remains, a huge number of Palestinian prisoners would be released, and you would have a ceasefire and aid coming in.

It's -- it's as simple as that. We need a yes from Hamas. We have a 60-day ceasefire, and this war will be brought to a close. That -- that's where we are. And so it is, again, I'm -- I'm -- I've been through this. U.S. gets Israel to the place it should be. Drop your unreasonable demands. Offer on the table. War stops. Ceasefire. Aid flows in. Hostages come out. And we're waiting on Hamas for a week. So it's -- it's --

BLITZER: So are you hopeful that there will be a deal?

MCGURK: I am hopeful. Look, my understanding is everybody involved in this now believes that we're moving in that direction, but there's this juxtaposition, Wolf, between the horrific situation in Gaza and the pace of these talks, and particularly from the Hamas leadership.

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You know, Wolf, I've talked to so many hostages now that have come out. And I asked them, like, what's it like with your Hamas captors? And they say, you know, underground or in these areas where they're being held, the Hamas leadership, the captors watch Al Jazeera, and they laugh at the distress of the Palestinian people. It's part of their strategy. It's horrible. It's horrible.

That said, look, we cannot allow Israel to withhold humanitarian aid. We worked on this every single day to make sure the aid was flowing. Trump administration took a different approach. We had 10 weeks of a complete siege after the -- the hostage deal broke down in March. Where we are now, the aid has to flow, but we need this deal.

Every international organization, every country, every activist that wants this war to end, call on Hamas to say yes now, and this war stops. We have humanitarian aid flowing. That is the fastest path to getting this war wound down. The war has to end.

BLITZER: There's a huge humanitarian crisis in Gaza right now, as we see from the video, as we hear about it. Aid is being delivered by a controversial group backed by the U.S. and Israel, and there's a lot of criticism of that. Does the way that -- does that need to be changed in order to get something done?

MCGURK: You know, we -- we dealt with this every -- every month. The -- the Israelis are frustrated that the ministries they hear about, they're Hamas. Hamas is a civil structure.

BLITZER: In Gaza.

MCGURK: In Gaza. That's something we dealt with. We made sure that U.S. provided aid, did not touch Hamas, and so Israel has set up this alternative structure, but it has -- in the implementation, clearly it's not working. Look, we have to stop this war. We need a ceasefire.

I was here about 10 days ago, Wolf, talking about bridging from war to peace, military success to political gains. We're not even at the foot of the bridge here, and you need the ceasefire in Gaza for it to start. You need the talks with Iran to start, and to try to lock in some of these gains.

Israel actually has a problem doing this. They're not great at bridging from war to peace, at talking about the political objective of military campaign. That's where the U.S. comes in. We have to help guide, help use diplomacy with everybody. That's where we are. The first step, though, Wolf, is this ceasefire in Gaza. And right now, as Jeremy just reported, that's my understanding, as well, it's on Hamas. We have a yes from Hamas. This all stops right now.

BLITZER: All right, let's see what happens. The stakes are clearly enormous. Brett, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, up next, President Trump says the first six months of his second term, quote, totally revived the U.S. So how do Americans feel about it? That's ahead.

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